About us
The City of Menlo Park's libraries offer a variety of programs, including art events, author talks, info sessions, craft sessions, music events, and more. To make the most of our programming efforts and this meetup page, we’d love for you to get involved. If you come to a program, say hi and let us know you saw it on meetup. If you have an idea for something you’d like to see at the library, send us a message. The library is a great space for community meetups and we’d love to play a role in making those connections!
See more events at our calendar, and check our hours and holiday closures.
Upcoming events
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Roopa Mohan presents Kasturba Gandhi
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, Menlo Park, CA, USOur Storytelling Festival continues, as Roopa Mohan shares a Chautauqua performance as the wife of Mahatma Gandhi.
More than just the wife of the famed political and spiritual leader, Kasturba Gandhi was herself an activist, freedom fighter, and an inspirational figure. Roopa Mohan’s performance will capture Kasturba Gandhi’s trials and triumphs in her journey from child bride to freedom fighter in South Africa and India.
A Chautauqua-style performance has three components. First is the character sharing her tales in monologue, second the character answers questions from the audience, and third the presenter steps out of character and comments about things the character might not or could not have known.
About Roopa Mohan:
In addition to her performances as a Chautauqua Scholar, Roopa Mohan shares stories internationally with audiences of all ages, telling personal narratives, tall tales, myths and legends she heard growing up in South India. As a storyteller and docent for school groups at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, she tells folktales around objects in the museum’s extensive collection.
Roopa serves on the Board of the Storytelling Association of California, leading a project to bring storytelling to underserved schools, and performs with Asian American Storytellers in Action.
This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.
This is one of nine events in the 11th Annual Menlo Park Storytelling Festival. Join us for one event, or the whole series!
| Sun. Sept. 27 | Clara Kamunde: Afri-Crafty Tales | Belle Haven Library | All ages |
| ------------- | -------------------------------- | ------------------- | -------- |
| Sat. Oct. 3 | Roopa Mohan presents Kasturba Gandhi | Menlo Park Library | Adults & teens |
| Sun. Oct. 18 | Hana Baba: Folktales from Sudan | Belle Haven Library | 6-Adult |
| Tues. Oct. 27 | Storytelling Meetup | Menlo Park Library | Adults & families |
| Thurs. Nov. 5 | John Weaver: Pumpkin Tales | Menlo Park Library | 4-Adult |
| Thurs. Nov. 12 | StoryFest! | Zoom | 6-Adult |
| Sun. Nov.15 | Storytelling Workshop | Menlo Park Library | 10-Adult |
| Mon. Nov. 16 | Jeff Gere: True Supernatural Tales of Hawaii | Menlo Park Library | 9-Adult |
| Sat. Nov. 21 | Tellabration! ™ | Menlo Park Library | 5-Adult |About Storytelling:
- Storytelling is telling stories--without using a book.
- It's an ancient art form that predates libraries, and books, and writing.
- It's not necessarily for children!
- Traditional-style storytelling creates unique images in the mind of each listener.
- According to the National Storytelling Network, "storytelling is the interactive art of using words and actions to reveal the elements and images of a story while encouraging the listener’s imagination. In storytelling, the listener imagines the story.”
- According to the Storytelling Association of California (an organization dedicated to promoting storytelling as a living art form), storytelling is “orally passing on adventures, wisdom, experiences, surprise, history, laughter, beliefs and imagination.”
Saturday, October 03, 2026 | 01:00 PM - 02:00 PM
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St., Menlo Park, CAMore free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X12 attendees
Adult Tabletop Gaming Meetup
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, Menlo Park, CA, USAdults, we've started a monthly gaming meetup just for you!
Drop in and enjoy a range of games, from well-known classics, to newer entries and even role-playing games. Bring in a game of your own to share, if you like! Meet new people and play a round or two.
The Adult Tabletop Gaming Meetup happens on the first Sunday of each month at Menlo Park Library.
This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.
- Sunday, October 04, 2026 | 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
- Sunday, November 01, 2026 | 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
- Sunday, December 06, 2026 | 02:00 PM - 03:00 PM
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St., Menlo Park, CA
More free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X2 attendees
California's Spanish Past
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St, Menlo Park, CA, USEven with recent, robust scholarly and activist work, few Californians today understand our land’s Spanish period. Our guest presenter will give us a deeper look into our state’s Spanish past!
From initial contact in the sixteenth century to Mexican independence in the nineteenth century, from the memory making that takes place in local lore, elementary school classrooms, landscape markers, place names, and even the built environment, this presentation from Kyle Livie, Ph.D. will share the story of the Spanish past and unpack these memories to better understand the transformation of what we have come to know as California.
About the presenter:
Dr. Kyle Livie is Professor of History and Co-Director of the Lytton Center for History and the Public Good at Ohlone College. A California native, Kyle holds a BA in history from UC Berkeley, an MA in history from San Francisco State University, and a Ph.D. in history from UCLA. Kyle has been an educator for over twenty-five years, teaching a range of courses from introductory classes in American and California history to advanced research methods at a variety of institutions including UC Berkeley, UCLA, California State University, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco State University.
Dr. Livie has shared his research at conferences including the Organization of American Historians, the American Culture Association conference, and the Social Science History Association.
This free event received funding support from the Friends of the Menlo Park Library.
Monday, October 05, 2026 | 06:30 PM - 07:30 PM
Menlo Park Library, 800 Alma St., Menlo Park, CAMore free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X4 attendees
Melanated Women Read: Dealing with the Dead
·OnlineOnlineMelanated Women Read is a book discussion group by and especially for Black women. This month we will discuss Dealing with the Dead, by Alain Mabanckou.
One day in the Congolese town of Pointe-Noire, Liwa Ekimakinga wakes to find himself in a cemetery where, three days earlier, he had been buried at the age of twenty-two in a pair of flared purple trousers in which he is now trapped forever. All around him are the other residents of the cemetery, all of whom have their own complex stories of life and death to share.
Bewildered by his predicament and unwilling to relinquish his tender bond with his devoted grandmother, Liwa makes his way back home to see her one last time, against all spectral advice. As he does, disturbing rumors swirl together with Liwa's jumbled memories of his last night on earth, leading him to try and solve the mystery of his own untimely demise.
About the Author:
Alain Mabanckou was born in Congo in 1966. An award-winning novelist, poet, and essayist, Mabanckou currently lives in Los Angeles, where he teaches literature at UCLA. He is the author of African Psycho, Broken Glass, Black Bazaar, and Tomorrow I'll Be Twenty, as well as The Lights of PointeNoire, Black Moses, and The Death of Comrade President.In 2015, Mabanckou was a finalist for the Man Booker International Prize.
About Melanated Women Read:
Melanated Women Read is a virtual book group that is by and especially for Black women. The purpose and focus are on inspiring, uplifting reads, and providing a safe space for Black women to speak, vent and enjoy honest and open conversation.
The group chooses from books written by Black authors. The goal of this community-based group is to introduce a variety of Black writers who will help build a love of reading in a positive environment while meeting new people and gaining new perspectives.
Melanated Women Read meets virtually on the first Monday of each month.
Monday, October 05, 2026 | 06:30 PM - 08:00 PM
Zoom webinar (register for link)More free events with Menlo Park Library
Menlo Park Library on social media:
@menloparklibrary on Instagram & Facebook
@menlolibrary on Twitter/X4 attendees
Past events
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